Texas’ foster care crisis is improving. Here’s how lawmakers can help kids even more | Opinion
When state legislators last met in 2021, children were sleeping in state offices in record numbers — many with serious, complex needs — because there were not enough appropriate foster care placements for them.
Legislators recognized this crisis, allocating $124 million to help stabilize the foster-care system and create more capacity for children. Community-based nonprofits — organizations charged by the state to care for foster children — focused on putting that money to their best possible use.
More than a year later, Texas and its children are in a better place. The number of children who lack appropriate placements has declined. In addition, networks of child-serving organizations are working together to find homes and treatment for those who have suffered unimaginable trauma and striving to keep siblings together and increase the number of kids who receive foster care from members of their extended families. Other community organizations are improving and expanding services, including mental health and parenting support services, for children and families who need help.
Despite this progress, much more work is needed to ensure that every child in the system is safe and receiving the full range of quality services they need. Legislators in Austin have the opportunity this year to build on the organizations’ work and on the state’s past investments to improve the care and services provided to our state’s most vulnerable children and youth.
With the right investments by the Legislature in 2023, even more lasting improvements are within sight. Intensive services for youth in foster care are expensive. Texas needs to continue the progress made updating the foster care funding system so that it reflects the true cost of effective services, helps maintain an experienced and dedicated workforce and prioritizes better outcomes.
This work will also support the ongoing implementation of a newer approach to foster care that our leaders have prioritized: community-based care, which pulls agencies and resources in a region together to meet a child’s full needs. Continued investment in prevention and family preservation services will keep families together and safe, while prioritizing mental health services for youth and adolescents is critical to their stability and well-being.
The highest priority of child- and family- serving organizations is to provide a safe and supportive environment for each child. Our work, however, is about more than putting a roof over kids’ heads. Our members are increasingly focused on providing the unique care that these young Texans need — the range of services that help them heal from past trauma, such as mental-health support.
They are also providing new levels of training and support for kinship caregivers, who are aunts, uncles and other extended family members who often provide foster care to children in their families who have been removed from their birth parents. These in-home trainings and therapies target family members caring for children with acute needs.
Finally, organizations continue to support the preservation of families before foster care is necessary and after children return home. Some communities now have resource centers to give families who need various types of help can show up and get directed toward the resources they need outside of the Child Protective Services system. Post-adoption services focus on keeping adoptive families strong and healthy so that children who’ve been adopted do not re-enter foster care.
This year can be pivotal for the advancement of child welfare services in Texas. Those who work on the front lines of providing those services are committed to working with legislators and other partners to build on our momentum.
This story was originally published January 26, 2023 at 1:36 PM.